Warnings of Russian disinformation

Desinformatsia, provokatsia, and maskirovka – tools for misdirection from the former KGB arsenal that are being used once again. There is nothing strange about this; since 2000 Russia has been led by a KGB officer, and in his war against the West conventional military forces are accompanied by psychological warfare.

The question is who is being deceived. Is it mostly European citizens, a target for Russian psy-ops, or perhaps, to a higher degree, the Russians themselves?

In the publication The Age of Trolls Stockholm Free World Forum has collected a number of articles on Russia’s information war on the West. The authors are Patrik Oksanen, political editor for MittMedia, Ben Nimmo, analyst and writer on European security issues and Jakob Ljungman, contributor to the Stockholm Free World Forum. The foreword was written by Mats Johansson, chairman and founder of the Stockholm Free World Forum.

Patrik Oksanen describes Russia’s well-planned information war and presents a foundation for a concrete discussion of what different actors should do in order to improve our defense and strengthen journalism’s credibility.

Ben Nimmo gives an overview of how Russia has succeeded in making information a weapon and points out four areas where the West should focus in order to recognize when information is used as a weapon.

Jakob Ljungman describes the situation in Latvia as a case study of Russian information warfare and brings up the question of how we in Sweden should act.

– It is the Stockholm Free World Forum’s mission to contribute to increasing awareness that Sweden is becoming involved in a new cold war. Disinformation is one of many tools in the Russian arsenal to influence opinion and decision-making in our country, said Mats Johansson, editor of Svenska Dagbladet’s editorial blog Säkerhetsrådet and author of Cold War 2.1.